A few months ago, I was talking with a colleague who was having a hard time finding focus in their work. They spoke of feeling pulled in multiple directions and of many obligations — both at work and with their family. As I listened, I could hear how frustrated they were feeling. It was obvious that a few things needed to shift for them. They needed to create a path that would get them moving forward in a more focused way. A path that was achievable and that would help to reduce the level of distractions they were experiencing. They needed to find a way to feel a true sense of control over their life.

Working together, we set out to make a list of ideas and strategies that, when practiced, had the potential to really assist them. Here’s a few key things we put on that list . . .

Reduce interruptions when focus is needed! This meant finding the least distracting spot to work, eliminating the constant notifications on their computer and smart phone and planning ahead to maximize productivity during the quietest moments of the day.

Stop working. Really! This was critical — often my colleague would keep working long into the night — when they were overtired and actually not productive at all. Instead of pushing themselves to keep on going we agreed that they would set a regular time to stop their work. This would support them to move on in their day and to be sure they were enjoying time with family and friends more frequently.

Look after self. These were simple self care ideas — but they mattered. Going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Finding moments in the day to breathe more deeply, calming busy thoughts in their mind and being more mindful throughout the day. It also included eating more real food and less junk food – and — actually remembering to eat. Oh – and getting their body moving. Going for walks or for a swim several times a week.

Today, things have improved. My colleague tells me they feel more focused and less distracted. These improvements show in the projects they are working on and in how they are generally feeling. They seem more at ease. They are also more aware of what works and doesn’t related to maintaining ongoing focus and eliminating distractions.

Finding your way to focus can be difficult. Sometimes the more we try to achieve focus the more distracted we become. It can be good to get out of your own head and discuss your thinking with another person. You’d be amazed just how many other people also struggle with distractions and maintaining focus. Other people can offer you solid ideas and suggestions that can make a real difference.

Do the things you need to do — so you can reduce the distractions in your life and improve your overall focus. Finding focus will make everything so much easier, faster and more rewarding.

Put Your Mind to It

The next time you find yourself having difficulty with focus or you feel distracted from your work — take note. Ask yourself what is happening that is causing you to feel that way? Consider what you can change up in your life. Talk about it with a close colleague or friend and get their input.

Perhaps you want to have some cash buffer while your real business ramps up.
Perhaps you just want holiday spending money.

The good news is that it’s easy to find gigs that supplement your primary paycheck.

Some marketplaces are focused on writers, some are focused on design, and some are just for general life tasks, so you can choose the type of work you want to do.

Before you sign up with one of these marketplaces, be sure to investigate. Look at reviews from others who have done work for them, and find out their payment policies, be sure you understand who owns your work product.

Above all, be sure that you’re receiving adequate payment for the work you do. Consider the opportunity cost of accepting the gig vs working on your primary business before you proceed.

Upwork

Upwork offers all types of services, from marketing to IT to translation services. All you need is a computer, Internet access, and your mad skills.

Upwork provides a user-friendly platform to help you communicate with your client, share files and project-related documents, track your time, and get paid. It’s free to join Upwork. Once you begin doing freelance work with a client on the platform, they deduct a percentage fee from each payment. So, be sure to price your services accordingly. Upwork also offers premium membership plans for an additional cost.

The Gig Saloon

It’s one streamlined place where gig economy workers can go to find new jobs, stay up to date on gigs, and share their experiences.

The app aggregates jobs from across a wide array of sources, so it includes driving and delivery along with general marketplaces like TaskRabbit.

The cool thing is that you can share your experiences (and read about others’ experiences) in the discussion area. This app is still fairly new, but looks like a promising place to find and apply for jobs across a variety of employers.

Fiverr

Fiverr is a site where you create your ideal gig based on your own talents, time, and experience. Then people who need what you’re selling can come and hire you through the site.

Fiverr includes worker ratings, and provides a secure transaction service, so you don’t have to directly contact the person hiring you for payment.

99designs

99designs is a marketplace for design. Customers upload design briefs for potential projects, choose the “prize” (which is the price level offered for the work), and then designers can submit entries to win the work. Because of the contest format, 99designs could be a way to test the waters if you want to get some real-world feedback on the quality of your design work, or if you’re just getting started as a freelance designer and want to build your portfolio.

There is risk that your design won’t be selected, and you give copyright ownership to the customer, so read the fine print before you join.

TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit’s marketplace revolves more around local gigs, and you can do general errands, cleaning, and personal assistance among other specialties.

You decide what you want to do, you decide how much you want to be paid, and TaskRabbit finds you local tasks. Members of TaskRabbit are called “taskers.” There’s a mobile app, and on-boarding/orientation provided by the company.

Have you used any of these services to supplement your income? Did I miss any great resources?

We have an electric golf cart we use to get around short distances in our town.

It has a mind of its own, sometimes starting on the first try, sometimes requiring elaborate finger-crossing, rituals, etc., to lurch to life. Sometimes we just sit for a few minutes, trying to change the mojo before jiggling the key in the ignition again.

Sometimes we just get stuck.

It happens to everyone. In life, in business, in relationships.

And when it happens, you just need a strategy. Are you going to yell into the wind, start experimenting, call for help, or just sit there?

How to Start When You’re Stuck

Change mood – Tony Robbins refers to this as “state.” When you’re stuck, you’re probably in a tired, bored, or uninspired state. Do something drastic to shift it, like wearing an evening gown to go grocery shopping, taking an ice cold shower like Julien Smith, chatting up a stranger in the grocery line. Focus your attention away from yourself.

Change location – Sometimes your physical environment is the problem. Try a small move, like working at a different desk, or standing up while you work. If you’re really in trouble, consider moving farther (I’ve moved from one coast to the other, but I know that’s a bit extreme).

Jiggle it a little – Stand up on your couch and dance around. Yell a little. Laugh into the mirror. Sprint down the street in front of your house and check your time. Can you get faster?

Add water – Our golf cart requires water in the battery compartment (who knew). Add an outside element to your stuck-ness. Watch a movie that inspires you, call a close friend, play with your dog. Anything that brings outside influence into your brain.

Get a new golf cart – Stop trying to do the thing. Do another, different thing. Just set it aside for a while and let it percolate in the background. Sometimes working on something else completely will work magic in your subconscious. Or maybe the think you’re stuck on is just not something you’re supposed to be doing right now.

Push it for a few feet to jump start – Find the tiniest piece of accomplishment in your big dream. Just do one small five-minute particle, to get it rolling. Five minutes at a time, you can make a bit of progress, especially if you do five minutes every day for a week.

Call someone to rescue you – Pull the fire alarm and call in reinforcements. That’s what friends are for.

As an entrepreneur or business owner, you must be familiar with the feeling of never being done with your work.

You’ re always on the move – daily tasks to complete, stats to analyze and new goals to accomplish –and there’s not much down time.

Time management is tedious but crucial. Without time management, you might as well work 24/7 without any extraordinary results. Find out how you can save time (and your sanity) with these five unique tips.

1. Social Content Calendar

Create a social calendar that helps you organize your upcoming posts. This could be done monthly to keep track of articles or topics.You can also figure out which articles/topics work best for your audience as they are all logged.

A simple spreadsheet with the name, themes, keywords and links (once published) is all it takes.

Once you find out what works for you – you can change the calendar accordingly to accommodate new topics and remove old ones.

A calendar is also useful for allocating your writing – you already know the topic and keywords, all that’s left is a little research and actually writing the post. If you’re meant to publish on Thursdays for example, you can start writing bits and parts on Tuesday, finalize the piece on Wednesday and make final edits before publishing on Thursday.

A social calendar will make it easier to stay motivated and organized.

2. Create Templates

Create templates for everything – blog posts, social media posts and even your emails. The amount of time this saves is mind blowing. Instead of custom creating every blog post/ social media post – you can just copy, paste, make relevant changes and you’re done.

If you know it’s a list post about social media tools, for example – having a template of your most used tools and small points about their features will allow you to spend less time while still putting out quality content. You can then create templates for social media – short templates focusing on individual points for Twitter, longer posts for Facebook and Google+ etc. This is the same for emails, having templates is like having your own FAQ page – copy and paste is all you have to do to save time.

3. Scheduling

Scheduling content in advance is a life saver. Many brands/ pages focus on pushing out as many posts a day as possible – this waters down the content and may even push your readers away. It is recommended to focus on scheduling content to go out at specific times of the day – based on your target audience’s location, most active time, the tool itself, etc.

There are various tools that help you with this – including DrumUp, Sprout Social and Commun.it – these tools let you schedule in advance on various social media platforms with ease. Also limit the number of posts you put out in a day – don’t push your audience too much.

4. 90-minute rule

As the name suggests, the 90-minute rule is a block of 90 minutes where you remove all the distractions from your life and focus completely on your work. Create a space for these 90 minutes every day and pinpoint one main task that you feel is most important. For those 90 minutes, all distractions need to be eliminated – close your email, close all the other tabs on your browser, put your phone on do-not- disturb mode – do whatever else is necessary to remain 100% focused on the tasks at hand.

It takes a while to get used to this, but once it becomes a part of your routine, you’ll notice that you get more work done in those 90 minutes compared to the rest of the day. A plus point is that you don’t have to worry about important tasks for the rest of the day and can work on already scheduled daily tasks from your social calendar.

5. Write Everything Down

You would have noticed that inspiration doesn’t really come when you’re sitting at your desk. It is a waste of your time to sit and wait for ideas to come along. More often than not, they come at the most random times – while commuting, eating, out with friends – and you tend to make a mental note about it but eventually end up forgetting.

To avoid this, write everything down – topics, themes, ideas about different areas – no matter how small you think it is, write it down. When you’re more focused, come back to the ideas and see which ones are actually beneficial and start working on them.

As a bonus tip, always remember to measure and analyze your efforts, this allows you to eliminate the least effective strategies and stay consistent. Using these tips in combination with each other will help you save time and open up your calendar for new ventures.

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